Tag Archives: Startup

It’s some time (read: a couple of years) since I last wrote a USE blog post. It’s not because I’m lazy. I’ve just had rather a lot to do.

The work of the USE Academy has got busier and busier, and away from my busy full-time job, I’m busy too. I have two small children (one who’s just started school; the other just over a year old), and very little mental or physical downtime. And there’s this thing I have a lot of problems with, called executive dysfunction.

This means I have real difficulty with planning, prioritising, or even just getting started on anything. And there’s reason for that. I’m not lazy; my brain just works a little differently from the norm.

If you are a makeup junky, you must have heard of Michelle Phan-one of the most influential YouTube celebrities. If you think she only posts videos to teach you how to do a trendy makeup, you are SO WRONG.

It’s been a while since my last post (apologies for that)! I have however, been extremely busy supporting our students to do great things! One of them being the University Business Challenge (UBC) – previously IBM Business Challenge. Some of you may remember that way back in September last year, we recruited our teams, by putting them through a rigorous selection process, whereby students ran their own pizza company (simulated of course). Continue reading “There’s no ‘I’ in team but there is in WIN! UBC 2016” »

As you might have noticed, we’ve made a few changes to our website and the process of offering entrepreneurship support. If you are looking for a clear outline of how the Evolve Programme works and how we can support you, then you are in the right place.

Hey everyone, my name is Baiju, a very excited intern at the USE who is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I’ll tell you a little bit about myself, but not sure where to start…

I come from Kenya, which has some of the most beautiful scenery, still trying to find something to top the Great Rift Valley and the sun setting in the horizon, watching the zebra graze the last few blades in the dark as the last golden rays hit their backs, it is bliss! I left Kenya to come to the University of Sheffield, to study Economics, as I have a passion for development and trying to bridge the gap of inequality.

Startup Weekends are fun packed entrepreneurship exercises in which you’ll learn much more than just starting a business. In brevity, Startup Weekends are two and a half day events; they start on a Friday evening when people pitch their ideas (It could be you too, if you have got one!). Then the participants choose the idea they would like to be part of. The next day the teams build their product prototype and also reach out to their market to understand the challenges their business idea would face. On the final day the teams present their ideas to the judges and win prizes!

It’s been a while since I wrote my first blog post and I am itching to share with you all the latest news and goings on here at USE. I am settling into my role quite well and since those first few hairy weeks of getting my head around what enterprise is, it’s been full throttle, with lots of exciting and interesting events and projects…

Remember the Date is an online greetings card company that initially started out as a date remembering service whereby users could create all their greetings cards in advance and then Remember the Date would send their cards out as and when required. This ensured that users would never forget to send a card again. Since launch, the business has pivoted several times, first by enabling customers to add a video message to their card and then by stocking the cards in various shops across Sheffield. The later change in how we run our business has proved successful with several other stores now poised to become stockists.

Hello from The Energy Community! In this blog, we’re going to introduce ourselves, describe our journey so far and then we’ll be telling you about a vacancy for an IT manager role: we want to take on another voluntary member which, if successful, could lead to a permanent offer with shares in the company. So skip to the bit you like, or enjoy the whole story. Continue reading “Join The Energy Community” »

After many rounds of assessments and interviews I managed to get a placement year at IBM. Starting a full time job after being a student was quite a culture shock. I had to move away from friends and family to go and work in a town that was almost as far away from home as I could get. I had to wake up at 8 o’clock every morning, get home at 6 and not go out during the week (mostly…). I wanted to fit all this all in whilst also embarking on my own startup journey. Continue reading “Starting a startup as a student: My experience” »

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